My grandmother’s washer and dryer were in her yellow kitchen, right by the back door. One afternoon, when my cousin and I were teenagers, we were in the kitchen when the dryer buzzed and our grandmother took out a fitted sheet and began folding it. We both walked over, watching, as she folded it perfectly. Michelle said, Okay. You HAVE to show me how you did that! And my grandmother was, I’m not even exaggerating, astonished. You mean you girls don’t know how to fold a fitted sheet? We both shook our heads no. So, she showed us how she put her hands inside two of the fitted corners and then joined them, folded the sheet, laid it flat on the dryer to smooth it out, and and then folded until it was perfectly done.

I still can’t really do it right, but every time I fold fitted sheets I think about being in her kitchen and I’m glad that no one else had taught me how.